Let us Even out the Odds this April

Now that 1st of April is behind us and enough number of people have been fooled, let us look forward. Come 15th of April and Delhi will be back with its Odd and Even Scheme. 

Now before I dwell any further, let me give a quick update to all those who are reading this blog but do not belong to Delhi or India. Delhi was the first city in India that tried an experiment in January 2016 of implementing the rule of Odd and Even for its automobiles in the city. This Odd and Even Rule has been implemented in the past in many cities of the world like Shanghai, Beijing, Paris, Mexico etc. and each has seen its own set of challenges while implementing such a rule. 

The way the Odd and Even scheme works is that on the odd numbered dates, only the cars bearing odd license numbers can bring their cars out on the roads and the even numbered cars have to stay in, and the reverse thing works during the even numbered dates. Let me clarify this:

So if the date is 2nd April, 4th April, 16th April or any other even date, then you can only bring your car on the road if your license plate number ends with an even number. Similarly, when the date is an odd number like 3rd April, 7th April or 21st April, you have to keep your even numbered cars inside and bring out the odd numbered cars. 

When this scheme was announced in Dec’15 for its implementation in Jan’16, people made a big hue and cry about it and the media as well as social media didn’t wait a minute in lampooning the idea and suggestion of the Delhi Chief Minister – Arvind Kejriwal. There were memes and jokes floating around and everyone had predicted the failure of such a scheme in Delhi. But the Government went ahead with its implementation, and the perspective and opinion of people changed after seeing the positive impact that this scheme had in reducing the number of cars on the road and thereby the travel time for each person. It is debatable that to what extent this scheme led to the reduction in pollution levels, which was the moot cause why this scheme was announced, but the effects on traffic reduction were evident clearly. 

Now such a scheme clearly has its drawbacks and disadvantages too, like:

1. The public transport system in Delhi is still not upto the mark, so how does one travel on days when one cannot take out his or her car. Should people bear the brunt of over-crowded Metros, over-charging autos, and over-speeding buses for 15 days?

2. Not everyone in Delhi has an even numbered and an odd numbered car and people are not willing to take the public transport, which is crowded and infrequent. 

3. If one has a driver with only one car, will that person now pay the driver for only 15 days? No driver will accept a cut in his salary just because the Government is not allowing cars to ply on the roads on certain days. 

Keeping the drawbacks aside, it is quite clear that reducing the number of cars on the roads of Delhi NCR is an imperative that cannot be pushed any further. So here is an alternative solution that I want to propose, which could possibly overcome some of the drawbacks highlighted above. 

What if we bring in a scheme called ‘Is it your Car’s Date Today?’. The biggest benefit of this scheme that I propose is that no car will be off the road for more than 4 days at the maximum. This means that the citizens would be happy to participate and not face the burden of an Odd-Even scheme. 

So what does this ‘Is it your Car’s Date Today’ scheme entail?

What this means is that if your car number matches the last digit of the calendar date, then your car shouldn’t be out on the road that day. Let’s understand this with a few examples:

• If the date on the calendar is 1st, 11th, 21st or 31st then all the cars ending with the number 1 have to be off the roads.
• If the date on the calendar is 10th, 20th or 30th, then all the cars ending with the number 0 have to be off the roads.
• If your car number ends with the number 9, then you can’t be bringing your car out on the road on the dates of 9th, 19th and 29th of a month. 

My solution is quite practical, easy to implement, not too much of a burden to the citizens and yet effective in curtailing the number of cars on the road on any given day. 

Of course, the reduction in the number of cars would be much lesser than what we see with the Odd-Even scheme, but we have to balance out the requirements of the individuals with the requirements of the society. 

What would you say to this Mr. Arvind Kejriwal?

Traffic Jams are our Birth Right

Getting stuck in bad traffic is our birth right and so escaping it is just not possible. 

Over and above this, if one stays in Delhi and works in Gurgaon, then you can imagine that such a person enjoys this fundamental right every day that he goes to work. 

What really messes this up is when traffic signals stop working and traffic police take charge. I have seen this on every occasion that such a thing happens, the backlog of traffic just increases across all roads. 

This made me thinking - What is the kind of courses that a traffic policeman goes through before he is given his posting? What are the subjects that he studies to be able to manage traffic? Has anyone of you ever paid attention to this aspect when you see a traffic policeman on the road? I doubt that we have even reflected about this for a moment. After all, we are always in a hurry and rush to reach somewhere that while he is an authority that exists whom we follow; he has never been of more consequence for us to really think about it. 

I also would not have given a thought to it but getting stuck in regular traffic jams was making me wonder on where lies the root cause of the problem. That is when I went to my marketing experience and tried to compare vehicles to stocks. 

Eureka! I had my answer. Or maybe I had a question in my mind, which needs an answer and hopefully an action. The question in my mind, which I believe is also the answer is: 

Is Supply Chain Management a part of their course? Supply Chain Managers are supposed to ensure movement of goods in the right manner and at the right pace ensuring that goods reach their destinations on time and there is no back log of stocks at the factory. 

If that is the case, then shouldn’t supply chain management be a mandatory course for all the traffic police across the country. After all, their job is also to ensure that the vehicles move at the right pace and they reach their destinations on time without creating a back log on the roads. 

I do hope that this blog reaches out to a few traffic police people, who can think and reflect on what I just wrote and see how this can be implemented. 

Ironically, this is a blog that should be written on a week day after an arduous journey, but unfortunately, it is once again the traffic jam that does not allow me to reach home on time to put a blog like this on a week day and so I had to manage it on a weekend.